By: Harleen Kaur
Due to the current primaries taking place in our country, society has taken a large interest in topics such as illegal immigration. Many of the presidential candidates have taken opposing views on the issue, especially those of the Republican Party. For example, both former governor Jeb Bush and Dr. Ben Carson support immigration reform via federal legislation. Yet, many of the candidates have advocated a stronger approach, and perhaps the most radical view has been seen by Donald Trump.
Trump has led the push to build a wall between Mexico and America in order to halt the steady flow of immigrants into the United States. The presidential candidate even went so far as to state that immigration would be a “death wish.” And although immigration reform will be a difficult task for the next president, it is not an issue that can be avoided by the construction of an impractical wall.
Birthright citizenship has been etched into our Constitution for over 100 years by the Fourteenth Amendment stating that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” But many Republicans, such as Trump, have voiced their opposition against the idea stating that it is not firm in its interpretation. They argue that children of alien immigrants are not under the jurisdiction of the US government because their parents are here illegally. Yet, the Boston Globe’s Evan Horowitz points out that because of the issue’s repeated occurrence in the campaign trail, it has become more of a political issue rather than an argument on legal interpretation.
Many argue that birthright citizenship gives immigrants an advantage because their so called “anchor babies” decreases their chance of getting deported. However, is it not reasonable to think that those immigrants are only trying to give their kids a better life? Shouldn’t they get to experience the American dream if they are willing to work for it? The New York Times’ Jose Antonio Vargas was an illegal immigrant himself, and he wrote, “I decided then that I could never give anyone reason to doubt I was an American. I convinced myself that if I worked enough, if I achieved enough, I would be rewarded with citizenship.” My question is, why shouldn’t he be able to?
Deporting these immigrants would mean taking kids, who are citizens, out of the society in which they were raised in, and relocating them a totally different and possibly unfamiliar country where they may not be able to speak, read, or write the language. The only other option would be to leave them in the US, which may not be possible for some because they would be separated from their families and there would have nowhere for them to stay. While birthright citizenship may be used to give these alien immigrants a leeway into citizenship, it also gives immigrant families a chance to improve our economy by taking working class jobs.
According to International Business Times, about 51% of Americans believe that illegal immigrants are taking away jobs from the average American citizen. Yet, a study released in January by the Center for American Progress concluded that by granting undocumented workers citizenship there is the potential to create jobs without lowering wages. This is because a large influx of immigrants creates a larger labor demand as businesses need to support a larger population. Business Insider report stated, “We find that 1,000 new immigrants to a US Metropolitan Area generate approximately 1,200 new local jobs… most of these jobs go to native workers.”
While it may be true that employers also benefit from immigration because it allows for cheap labor and greater profit in the current slow-growth economy, this does not imply that immigrants are taking jobs away from the American citizens. In fact, the only jobs that are taken by immigrants are working class jobs the average American is unwilling to take, such as in agriculture. And because unemployment is currently at 5.3%, according to International Business Times, the “job-stealing” argument is unsubstantial. Especially because the number of unauthorized immigrants has stabilized during the Obama Administration. Some say that the real problem occurs when immigrants progress from those jobs and move up the social ladder, but this has only led to the creation of more jobs, especially in the non-traded sector.
The government must find a way to regulate the flow of immigrants into this country in order to develop a system in which our laws are not abused. For example, in order to regulate the alien immigrants already present in the US, the government needs to set up an organization or federal bureau to find alien immigrants across the US and register them for background checks. If they pass, meaning that there are no signs of threats or criminal history, then there should be a period of time that they are allowed to stay in the US as long as they apply for citizenship. If they are not approved, then that will signal a push to deportation whether or not they have a child who is a citizen. This may end up costing the government large amounts of money, but it would be creating jobs for citizens, thus increasing consumerism and allowing a greater circulation of money back to the government.
So, I would like to ask all of Trump’s supporters to consider the consequences of building a wall between the US and Mexico. Yes, about half of the illegal immigrants currently in the United States are Mexican, but is this truly a bad thing? These immigrants take the jobs the average American is unwilling to do thus increasing economic growth and creating more jobs. In addition, not only would deporting these immigrants would not only damage the social structure of our current society, but it would also disassemble immigrant families whose children are citizens of the US due to birthright citizenship. So, in order to truly solve the issue of immigration, we must create a bureau in the federal or state government in order to conduct background checks of all alien immigrants. While this still may be unappealing to some, I would challenge those few to consider how these views would change had they been considering our history. Take the British when they were just beginning to colonize the New World- if the Native Americans had pushed them out for being immigrants unwilling to assimilate to their customs, would you feel the same as you do currently?
